杓唇石斛 shao chun shi hu

Epidendrum moschatum Buchanan-Hamilton in Symes, Embassy Ava, 478. 1800; Callista calceolaria (Carey ex Hooker) Kuntze; C. moschata (Buchanan-Hamilton) Kuntze; Cymbidium moschatum (Buchanan-Hamilton) Willdenow; Dendrobium calceolaria Carey ex Hooker; D. cupreum Lindley; D. moschatum var. cupreum (Lindley) H. G. Reichenbach; D. moschatum var. unguipetalum I. Barua; Thicuania moschata (Buchanan-Hamilton) Rafinesque.

Stems erect, cylindric, to 1 m, stout, 6-8 mm in diam., rigid, unbranched, with many nodes, internodes ca. 3 cm. Leaves alternate along upper part of stem, oblong to oval-lanceolate, 10-15 × 1.5-3 cm, leathery, base with clasping papery sheaths, apex acuminate or unequally bilobed. Inflorescences racemose, on old leafless stems, pendulous, ca. 20 cm, laxly several to more than 10-flowered; peduncle ca. 5 cm; basal sheaths 4, overlapping, cupular; floral bracts oblong, 12-20 × 3-5(or more) mm, leathery, apex obtuse. Pedicel and ovary to 5 cm. Flowers deep yellow [or pink or white with rose tips], disk with a pale purplish brown blotch on either side, column yellow, anther cap purple. Dorsal sepal oblong, 24-35 × 11-14 mm, 6- or 7-veined, apex obtuse; lateral sepals oblong, 24-35 × 9-10(or more) mm, 5-veined, base slightly oblique, apex slightly acute; mentum conic, short and wide, ca. 6 mm. Petals obliquely broadly ovate, 26-35 × 17-23 mm, 7-veined, apex obtuse; lip rounded, slipperlike, ca. 24 × 22 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely pubescent, margin involute and cucullate. Column ca. 4 mm, foot ca. 4 mm; anther cap conic, adaxially glabrous, front margin irregularly denticulate.

Epiphytic on tree trunks in open forests; ca. 1300 m. S and W Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

Plants from China and Thailand, including the type of Dendrobium cupreum, are ± yellow-flowered and thus differ from plants from the rest of the range, including the type of D. moschatum, which has pink or white flowers with rose tips. This might well deserve formal taxonomic recognition.